5 Exterior Painting Hacks

Exterior painting can seem overwhelming, even if you already have experience doing it! Painting exteriors made up a lot of work that I did with my painting company during spring and summer months, so I have a lot of experience doing every step of the process from A to Z. Here, I’ve compiled 5 in-depth hacks for exterior painting that will hopefully help you get started, or give you some supplemental information to make the process faster, more efficient, and help you seem more professional to your customers if you’re a professional painter. 

The biggest tip I can give you is to purchase our Online Exterior Painting Course, which contains over 50 in-depth videos on the subject of painting the exterior of a home, covering everything from marketing your company to doing the actual job. The information in this blog post is just a taste of what to expect in this course. Our online courses contain quizzes at the end of every chapter, a final exam, and even reward you with a certificate at the end of the course. Buy it now and propel you and your company to new heights. 

1. Make a game plan

Determine what your resources are. Are you the owner of a painting company with a crew of painters working underneath you? Are you painting your house alone, or with your significant other? Organizing yourself and your team should always be one of the first steps before starting, especially if you have limited time to work on a project. How are you going to use your time wisely? 

Every single house exterior is going to be different in terms of the amount of prep work needed, the surfaces that the house is made up of, the colors, etc. Mapping out a plan and determining all the work that needs to be done is only going to be of benefit to you. 

On top of this, every person working on this job is going to have different strengths and weaknesses, and you can use this to assign them all different tasks. Some employees are better at brushing & rolling versus spraying, or are more suited to prepping and masking. For younger or newer crew members, you may task them with setting up, cleaning up, or running to the paint store, if needed, for example. If you’re working by yourself, you may end up doing multiple tasks simultaneously - like masking an area and then spraying it. 

Once you get to the point where you’re ready to start painting, a proper painting order will need to be decided. The ideal painting order that I like to stick to whenever possible is: 

• The front door
• Priming the gutters
• Accent colors (stucco, gable ends, etc.)
• Soffits and body
• Doors & window trim
• **Read this blog post for more information. 

2. Caulking & sealing

When it comes to painting an exterior, caulking and sealing is definitely a part of the prep process that you shouldn’t be overlooking. Caulking and sealing gaps and cracks is effective at: 

• Keeping air in/out: This allows you to keep warm air in the house in the winter and cold air out, and vice versa in the summer. 
• Keep moisture out: Caulking & sealing allows you to prevent mold, mildew and water damage when everything is sealed properly. Almost any surface can get damaged by water, so making sure everything is caulked and sealed is essential to avoiding damage.
• Prevent bugs from getting in and making homes: Keep cutter bees and insects away from homes by caulking and sealing. While they may still find little areas and in eaves, they won’t burrow into siding if it’s properly sealed. 

Areas like windows and door jambs are some of the most high-profile areas to caulk and seal. Windows especially are an area where air will be flowing in and out, and it’s possible for moisture to get in gaps around the frame. Focus your sealant on the area where the window meets the trim, not around the outside of the whole thing. If the window is in an area that collects a lot of precipitation on the top, caulk any gaps on the top and sides to prevent water gathering behind the window. Avoid caulking the bottom to let any moisture drain out. 

Doorjambs are similar to windows in terms of where you should be caulking. Correctly sided and flashed doors and windows are going to have drip metal over the top, but if you’re not seeing this, make sure you’re applying some sealant to those areas. 

Other than that, make sure to caulk any large holes, around any external pipes or vents, at the corners of the home, and filling any large gaps in stucco will keep them from widening over time. Use a textured sealant like Mor-Flexx or Category 5 to make the texture of the stucco. 

3. Sprayers for every color

If you’re using an airless sprayer when painting an exterior, then you’ll be able to paint the house faster than with a brush and roller. If you’re a part of a company that has a larger budget and is getting paid for the job, then you might have more than one airless sprayer at your disposal. That was the case when I owned my painting company, and for that reason, I was able to use a different airless sprayer for every color that we were using on the house. 

This comes out to something like 3-5 sprayers. When you have one sprayer, you’ll have to clean it out every time that you need to switch to a different color, which is time consuming. Having all of these sprayers set up at once saves so much time, plus you can have multiple people spraying at once. 

With multiple sprayers, you’ll be able to leave the sprayers out all day, which comes in handy when you’re waiting for the front door to dry completely. If anything lands on that door and smudges the paint, you’re going to be glad that you still have a sprayer loaded up with that color. Also, if you’re using one sprayer all day long, the pump on that sprayer is going to be working very hard and you’ll be burning it out quicker. 

Now, like I said, this may not be possible if you don’t have the funds for multiple airless sprayers, or even one. Use what you have, and are able to - this is just my advice for if you have those resources, and how you can use them to your advantage. 

4. Painting the front door first

Out of everything to do and paint on an exterior, you might be wondering why the front door is going to be the first thing. Well, the easiest way to paint the door and get the smoothest finish is if you’re painting the door horizontally rather than vertically. So, to do so you’re going to have to remove the door and paint it, and then you’ll have to wait until it’s fully dry to reinstall it. The logic is that if you paint the door at the beginning of the day, then it will be dry by the time you’re wrapping up. That gives more than enough time for it to dry, especially if it’s warm out, plus you’ll be able to keep busy and not have to wait around for the door to dry. 

Here’s a step-by-step of how I paint the front door: 

1. Remove the hardware and the door from the hinges. 
2. Carry the door to an open sunny area. 
3. Make sure the door is clean before spraying. 
4. Sand if necessary to ensure a smooth surface. 
5. Brush all debris off. 
6. Mask any glass windows with FrogTape Green. 
7. Quickly and easily mask off all necessary edges of the door. 
8. Use a small sprayer with a short hose to spray the door. 
9. Remove your masking while the door is still wet. 
10. Let it dry in the sun!
11. Reinstall the door and the weather strips. 

 

5. Leave a touch-up kit

No matter the type of job I’m doing for a customer, at the end of the job, I’m going to be leaving them with a touch up kit that contains a pint or quart of the paints used. Additionally, I’ll be leaving a business card, plus information on the colors and locations the paints were used. This way, the customer can attempt to do any touch ups themselves, or if the job is under warranty, you can come out and quickly fix the job without having to buy new paint. 

Even if you’re just someone painting their own house, make sure to properly label the remaining paints at the end, and store them just in case you ever need that information, or paint, again! If the house is sold, that paint can stay there for the next homeowner too. A touch up kit can just take so much stress and anxiety out of having to fix things up in the future, and you’ll never have to wonder exactly what the color and name of the paint was - you’ve got that information stored away, and you’ll be able to perfectly match things up.